Did you notice the change on the Deeprun Tram? Look again. The tunnel on the Ironforge side is the same, but Stormwind now has a ramp part. No, not a rampart. I mean it has those, but not as part of the tunnel to the tram.

What I'm saying is that as best as I can tell, the tram goes down, then up, ending at the same elevation as it started. Factor in the ramp and lack of ramp and bam, we know the exact relative elevations of Stormwind and Ironforge.

There is one problem: levelness. Since Azeroth is spherical, or close enough, some sort of rounded three-dimensional shape (based on evidence in Halls of Lightning), then level is a constantly changing meaning. Obviously the tram is not level at either entrance, or else it would be sticking out the world. It could be level at an exact distance between them, meaning that at either end the angle with the group would be the same. This would make elevation measurements possible and could be tested: measure the distance of the tram tunnel and if at the midpoint it is level, there you go.

But the tram exits are not titled. This leaves one last possibility: both ends are level. This is impossible with a straight line and a curved surface. A flat surface (flat Azeroth theory) has no evidence (then again, a round Azeroth has very little). But given a round Azeroth, the tram must be curved. Yet it appears straight. How can this be?

Obviously the tram isn't in the normal world in any usual sense. This explains the mystery of being tangential to the ground (parallel) at two points. And it explains why it goes through a large body of water when there is only dry land between the cities.

The tram is inter-dimensional and utterly nonsensical. This is perfectly consistent with gnomish construction.

And I have no clue of the relative elevations anymore. If we knew the curve we could figure it out, but how does one measure the extra-dimensional curving of something when inside the curved space? It would appear perfectly flat, as it does!

This is true, however it cannot be the body of water seen from inside the tram, as the outer wall of the tunnel cannot be found anywhere in that body of water. That body of water's floor is made of lots of spikes, while the one the tram travels through is smooth and sandy, and has a sunken pirate ship!

This is not to mention the fact that the two exit points of the tram point in directions other than the cities (and they most certainly don't point at each other).

But here is another question? Why would you go through all the trouble to build a tram in another dimensional space? And if you could do it like this, why not just have it be a bridge? Or even just a small sidewalk? Or why not just connect the two portals and have no distance at all?

This is what they did. The two "instance" portals are just regular portals. The real invention is the giant gear shaped entrance, which is in fact a machine that implants memories of a tram ride into your brain upon exiting the portal on the other side.

The game 'world' of Azeroth is only some 5 miles in diameter, something like that. Of course in the stories it is 2000 times bigger. That's what happens when you try to pretend a small gaming area is a planet.

Luckily for us the game world is so small, we would not want to spend 4 hours on the tram between Ironforge and Stormwind, would we?